Is the acquisition of skills really the point of education?

Education is meant for life. Acquisition of skills is definitely a part of an educational package, without a doubt. The foremost objective of education must be to facilitate the learner to become a lifelong learner, in all manner of living routine commitments and daily responsibilities to self and others, substantially.

As John Dewey rightly states - 'Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself'; it becomes an indispensable portion of one's character or personality to get self-educated and learned over the course of time.

Generally, on an overall scale, education aims to accomplish these most common and important skills in a student-

Reading, writing, knowledge of math, science and history.

Reasoning and problem solving: Ability to analyze and interpret information, application of ideas to situations.

Good communication skills: Verbal and non-verbal communication skills, and ability to interact with others.

Physical and Emotional fitness: Physical health can include good habits of nutrition and exercise. Emotional fitness can include development of self-confidence, self-reliant engagement, respect for others, avoidance of unacceptable personal behaviour.

Skilled work and work ethic: Education qualifies learners for skilled employment/career, not requiring a college degree. Ethics to work with all types of people from different backgrounds.

This world is full of engaging possibilities to learn. Mostly, it appears to be different from different people's perspectives. But are the children really passionate or mindful about learning what they are supposed to learn?It has been tested over the period of time that the learner has to pursue after knowledge, and not the other way round. Being passionate about something, learning about it, and sharing what you know with others, gives you the confidence on the topic and enables you to exhibit your interactive and communication skills in a larger scale. It strives to create an atmosphere that can produce learners who are attentive of all that surrounds them.

Howbeit, real-time education must focus on instilling a blend of intelligence and character. Intelligence alone would be a lame acquisition without a good character to support. A learner must be capable of discerning the truth from the false, facts from illusions etc. Quite alarmingly, educated people fail most often to think logically. While the true purpose of education uniquely differs from person to person inside the learning arena, there is always an added desire of leading a better lifestyle, having a prospective future, maintaining physical and emotional health, acquiring understanding on citizenship and community responsibility in the longer run.